World of puppets

Source: Manila Times

A traditional shadow puppet performance by Wayang Sandosa. Photo by Jose Sylwin Solidum
The best puppeteers in the Asean region gathered together in a festival dubbed “PAPET ASEAN 2010: Celebrating ASEAN Puppet Traditions” staged on February 24 to 26 at the Abelardo Hall Auditorium of University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, as part of the Philippine International Arts Festival in celebration of National Arts Month.
Warmly received by students and puppet enthusiasts, the three-day festival featured the best puppeteers as well as inspiring stories from the Asean including the Philippines’ very own Filipino puppeteers led by Dr. Amelia Bonifacio, writer, artist, and mother of puppeteering in the country.

Highlights of the festival were performances by the puppets and puppeteers from Singapore (Mascots and
Puppets Specialists), Malaysia (Pak Yusoff Mamat), Indonesia (Indonesian dalangs), and the Philippines (Anino Shadowplay Collective, Ony Carcamo, Roppets Edutainment and Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas).

During the opening ceremony, the festival organizer, Samahan ng mga Papetir sa Pilipinas, together with the UP Department of Speech Communication and Theater Arts, presented a plaque recognizing the great contribution of Bonifacio not only in Philippine puppeteering but also in children’s literature and the arts. Bonifacio’s adaptation of the Indian epic “Rama at Sita” and retitled “Sita and Rama: Papet Ramayana” was the initial offering in the festival, the music of which was arranged and performed by brother-and-sister tandem Joey Ayala and Cynthia Alexander.

Filipino puppeteer Ony Carcamo was the master of ceremonies assisted by Sampaguita, a pig puppet that entertained the audience with wit and humor.

The festival also featured a seminar on puppetry in live education in the hope of propagating puppetry in the Philippines.

The puppeteers’ visit to the country was concluded at the NCCA Asean Corner of masks and puppets through a dialogue with NCCA Executive Director Cecile Guidote Alvarez about a paradigm for continuing collaboration.